Canon offered a glimpse of what to expect from the photography in the future
at an expo show in Paris this week. Kate Day picks her highlights
from the show.

Forget cables and card readers, the Cross Media Station simplifies the process of taking images off a digital camera and sharing them with family and friends.

This prototype, a black box about the size of a DVD player, automatically imports photos and videos when a digital camera or camcorder is placed on top of it. The box also contains an inductive charging pad which recharges the batteries of up to three cameras while the images and videos are being transferred.

The Cross Media Station organises imported media by recording which camera used, where and when the image was taken and uses face recognition software to group together photos of the same person.

Imported pictures and videos can then be displayed on a television screen or shared with other Cross Media Stations so that friends and family can enjoy your photos wherever they are in the world. And if you and your mum both had one, you could even send photos to print on her printer from your Cross Media Station.

So there really would be no excuse for leaving photos on your camera once these come onto the market, although unfortunately that isn’t expected to happen for at least a couple of years.

Multi-purpose camera

Two years ago Canon shook up professional photography when it announced the first full-frame digital SLR camera with HD video. They have now unveiled a concept camera capable of capturing video with a resolution four times greater than HD.

The multi-purpose camera looks much more like a cross between a camcorder and a stills camera than it’s digital SLR cousins, with the folding viewfinder from Canon’s professional camcorders. With an 8 megapixel CMOS sensor and a frame rate of 60 frames a second, this camera could transform photography once again by allowing very high resolution still images to be selected from video, rather than requiring photographers to choose between shooting still images or film.

There are significant limitations with this camera in its current form, not least that it is not compatible with Canon’s existing lenses and only has one lens. This prototype is unlikely to ever come to market as it is now but watch out for more hybrid cameras that explore ways of extracting still images from video. And never mind HD, 4k video resolution is just stunning.

World’s largest sensor

Imagine a world where your camera could see things that were invisible to you. Take a photo at night and the camera would reveal what lay hidden in the darkness.

Canon’s largest sensor can do just that, though it’s still a little too big to fit inside your camera. Measuring 202 x 205mm, this sensor is 40 times the size of a commercial sensor and its pixels are also 40 times larger. These larger pixels mean that the sensor requires just 1/100th of the light needed by the largest sensors in professional cameras so it can capture details that are invisible to the naked eye.

Initially envisaged for use in astrophotography and capturing animal behaviour at night, this kind of sensor could also be used by the security industry.

But this isn’t just a supersized sensor. Up until now, very large CMOS sensors have not been able to capture video because they needed too much time between receiving and transmitting data. Canon have now found a way to re-engineer the design of the circuit in order to achieve a high enough readout speed to support video.

This is definitely a highlight for geeks but one that shows just what cameras of the future might be capable of.

Mixed media technology

Last year James Cameron’s Avatar reignited interest in 3D technology, delighting audiences with a stunning virtual world that lept out of the screen and appeared to fill the cinema.

Canon are using 3D imaging in a headset that makes computer-generated graphics appear to exist in the real world. So unlike 3D films where viewers need to view scenes at the correct angle, these headsets allow you to climb inside a virtual object.

This merging of real and virtual worlds with mixed media technology has a similar magic to 3D imaging but with much more practical applications. Canon suggest that it could help with design by allowing designers to explore new products from all angles.

By overlaying a real mock up of a product with a virtual representation the design, the details could be checked in a way that feels as though the product is really there. So instead of manipulating images on a computer screen a car designer could climb into the virtual vehicle and try it out from the driver’s point of view.